When the Moon Is Low(100)

Pointed boots landed on Saleem’s back, his stomach, and his ribs. He heard Mimi scream. He tried to cower, to cover his stomach from the blows. His breath was short. He felt pavement against his cheek, cold and rough. And then it stopped.

Saleem crawled away, coughing and sputtering on his knees. Mimi’s cries faded. He dragged himself to a corner and lay behind a pile of cardboard boxes.

Please let it be over.

Saleem closed his eyes and gave in to the dark.





CHAPTER 49


Saleem


WHY DIDN’T I FIGHT BACK? WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME?

Saleem was almost as furious with himself as he was with Mimi’s pimp. It was morning. His body screamed in protest as he hobbled his way to a corner store and bought something he could sip through his swollen, split lips. The store owner, taking him for a hooligan, took his money scornfully. He shook his head, disappointed in his country for not keeping the troublemakers out.

After finding his way to the train station, Saleem looked for schedules and routes that would take him into France. He felt the eyes of a police officer on his back. In a moment, Saleem had expertly melted into the crowd, leaving the officer to shake his head and return to the opposite side of the station.

SALEEM GRAPPLED EACH DAY WITH THE POSSIBILITY THAT HE might not make it to England. Taken with his experience within the first few days of arriving in Italy, he felt desperate to try something. But he was tired—fatigued as if his veins carried lead instead of blood. He was tired of having nothing to eat and tired of worrying about money. He was tired of watching over his shoulder. Leaving Kabul may have been a mistake after all. Things might have gotten better.

Saleem did not hear the click of heels nearing him. He’d nodded off with his back against the side of a building. In the recessed streets of Italy’s capital, someone recognized his battered face.

“Saleem.”

He opened his eyes to spy two knees with scrapes like skid marks. Mimi crouched beside him, her voice hushed.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” His voice was low and insincere. He looked around.

“Are you alone?”

“Yes,” she said. “Burim is not here.”

His name was Burim.

“You are hurt bad? Oh, your mouth!”

“I’m all right. It’s better now.” Saleem admitted to himself that it was his fault he and Mimi ran into Burim that night and it was because of him that Mimi had been dragged away. From the looks of it, Burim hadn’t let her off easy. There was a bluish hue below her left eye and a small scab on her lip.

“I . . . I am sorry, Mimi,” he said. “I did not want for you to be hurt.”

Mimi slumped to the ground and sat beside him. “I know. Burim is a crazy man. I know him. Nothing new.”

“You need to get away from him.” It seemed uncomplicated to Saleem. Why linger here when the money she earned was not hers and she lived in a perpetual state of fear? Why did Mimi not leave?

“I can do nothing. Not now. Maybe one day but now . . . now I have no choice.”

They contemplated in silence, Saleem wondering why Mimi did not walk away today and Mimi knowing Saleem would never understand.

“I take you to the man now,” she said. “Maybe you can leave. You have better chance than me.”

“But Burim? What if he finds us again?”

“He is far now. He has two girls far from here. New girls. He go to meet them. We have time.”

He nodded and followed. While he did not feel up to the meeting, he wanted desperately to leave Rome. Mimi led him down the same streets, watching to be sure he kept up the pace. They reached an apartment building with a broken knob and first-floor windows taped together. Saleem shook his head, knowing he was ignoring his instincts by entering.

“Inside door, press for apartment B3,” Mimi instructed. “A man answer. He ask who you are and you tell him Mimi send you. Say you want to go to France and maybe he have job for you.”

“Tell your name?”

“Yes. This man, he not Burim friend. But you do everything he say. Everything, understand? He is dangerous man but possible he send you to France. You come here in two days,” she instructed specifically.

Saleem was relieved he had time yet before he was to meet Mimi’s contact though it was disappointing that it would be at least another two days before he could leave this city.

“What’s his name?” he asked. Mimi was already leading him back down to where they had come from. “What is this man’s name?”

“No name,” she said firmly. “No questions. He not like to talk.”

“How you know him?”

“He work with Burim one year but they fight for money. Now they not talk but I know man sends people from here to other countries. He tell you how you do.”

Saleem nodded, understanding some but not all. Mimi was neck deep in a world of unsavory characters. Saleem wondered if he was one of them.

Maybe I am like her. Like the people she knows. Maybe I’m not an innocent boy on the run anymore. Maybe if I accept that, I’ll be better off.

She walked ahead of him, her thin ponytail beckoning him to follow. Saleem, still sore, suggested they sit down and eat the half sandwich he had in his pocket. Mimi nodded up ahead.

“Come with me,” she said and he followed.